SummitMedia’s KXSP/590 (Omaha) has gone off the air, silencing one of the Midwest’s biggest AM signals.
KXSP went off the air Friday, Feb. 20. It had carried ESPN Radio.
In a request for special temporary authority to remain silent, KXSP tells the FCC, “The station was taken off the air due to the sale of the real property on which the station’s transmitter site is located. The Licensee is currently in discussions regarding use of the current transmitter site and is evaluating options to resume operations as expeditiously as possible.”
FCC records indicate KXSP had transmitted from the site at North 56th Street and Kansas Avenue since 1936. The station itself, originally WOW, signed on in 1923.
KXSP is SummitMedia’s only AM station in the Omaha market, where it also owns four FM’s. Summit’s corporate website no longer lists KXSP among its Omaha stations.
KXSP is the latest in a series of AM stations to go off the air, though it’s the largest Upper Midwest signal to fall silent: Due to its low frequency and the area’s high ground conductivity, 590’s 5kW signal can easily be heard on car radios in Des Moines, Kansas City, and Sioux Falls. It is one of only a handful of AM class B (regional) stations that don’t have to reduce power or switch to a directional antenna pattern at night.
Federal law allows KXSP to stay off the air for up to one year.